por la Universidad de Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Michigan — Women on welfare who suffer from social anxiety find it harder to work—and leave welfare—than women without the disorder, according to a new University of Michigan study.

Welfare recipients with social anxiety disorder worked only six of 12 months, compared with about nine months for those who did not suffer from this disorder or from major depression. By comparison women with depression only worked about eight of 12 months.

Social anxiety disorder is a persistent fear of social or performance situations that might involve exposure to unfamiliar people or possible scrutiny by others. This condition, which often remains undetected and untreated, undermines a woman’s ability to become self-sufficient and impedes efforts to reduce welfare costs through return-to-work programs, the U-M researchers said.

“Women with social anxiety disorder are at risk of extreme economic hardship,” said Richard Tolman, a professor in the School of Social Work and the study’s lead author. “These welfare recipients may lose benefits if they fail to enter the work force rapidly and if they exceed time limits for support.”

Tolman and colleagues examined whether social anxiety disorder was an obstacle to successful employment among women receiving welfare. They analyzed data on 609 respondents who completed four annual interviews from nickthe Women’s Employment Study.

More than a third of the women cared for a child younger than age 2 and more than 60 percent lived in poverty in the month before the interview.

Interview questions included measures of social anxiety disorder, other mental health diagnoses, welfare and work status, and other variables.

“Very few of the women in this study received any help for a treatable problem that made it nearly impossible for them to get a job and get off of welfare,” said Joseph Himle, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and School of Social Work.

The findings also highlight that other barriers such as poor physical health of the women and their children, low educational attainment and inadequate transportation remain a concern and are significant obstacles to work for women in this disadvantaged economic group. An accumulation of multiple barriers increases interference with work efforts, the researchers said.

“With unemployment growing rapidly in these tough economic times, people suffering from social anxiety disorder may be at even greater risk,” said James Abelson, a professor of psychiatry. “Social fears may increase their risk of being laid off, and discomfort making phone calls or interviewing will greatly undermine efforts to find new employment.”

In a follow-up study led by Himle, the research team is developing and testing a treatment program specifically designed for ­this disadvantaged population. The researchers hope to increase job success for those whose social anxiety has contributed to their lack of employment.

Since the study focused on women, the researchers do not know if the fi ndings are relevant to low-income men, who are generally denied public welfare benefits in the United States.

The study’s other authors are Deborah Bybee, research scientist, School of Social Work; Jody Hoffman of Ann Arbor Consultation Services; and Michelle Van Etten-Lee, adjunct assistant professor, Department of Psychology.

The findings appear in the current issue of Psychiatric Services.

by James E. García

U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Bill Mesta replaces an official picture of outgoing President George W. Bush with that of newly-sworn-in U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama, in the lobby of the headquarters of the U.S. Naval Base January 20, 2009 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.(photo by Brennan Linsley-Pool)

PHOENIX — A local bilingual publication recently featured a cover illustration of Barack Obama with a headline that posed a provocative if indelicate question: “Could he be a Santa Claus for us?”

The “us” referred to the U.S. Latino community.

The short answer to that question is “no.” Latinos will not wake up this year and find a pile of shimmering, gift-wrapped public policy initiatives that will suddenly make everything alright. Politics, like life, doesn’t work that way.

The question that we should ask ourselves is whether Mr. Obama will routinely take into account the needs and interests of Latinos as he pursues his administration’s already crowded agenda?

To that question, I offer­­ an enthusiastic if indelicate “probably.”

I don’t mean to sound cynical. These times demand a certain guarded optimism. For one thing — and I hope you’re sitting down — politicians don’t always keep their promises. Also, running for president is very different than being president. Simply put, you don’t always get what you want.

For the record, here’s some of what Obama pledged to Latino voters during the campaign: more jobs; economic stability; middle class tax cuts; worker protections; a quick end to the Iraq War; greater access to affordable health care; more investment in public education; broader access to higher education; and an immigration reform plan that penalizes employers who hire illegal immigrants and provides millions of undocumented immigrants with a path to citizenship.

If a lot of that sounds like the pledges he made to most of the nation’s voters, there’s a good reason for that: most Latinos are not unlike everyone else. We tend to care about the same basic issues. We just happen to care about some of those issues in slightly different ways.

Consider the following: Latinos are among the least likely to have health insurance.

Our young people quit high school at alarmingly high rates. During economic downturns, Latinos are often the first to lose their jobs and the last to be rehired. The rate of foreclosures among Latino homeowners since 2006 was 6.7 per 1,000 homes as compared to the national average of 4.5 per 1,000, according to a recent report published in the Wall Street Journal. And many of us have relatives who are recent immigrants.

The key to ensuring that the so-called Latino agenda is part of Obama’s White House agenda will depend on our ability to gain and maintain access to the new president.

Obama’s announced nominations to his Cabinet were a good start. U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis and Gov. Bill Richardson were picked to lead the Interior, Labor and Commerce departments respectively, though Richardson has withdrawn his name in the wake of a potential scandal in New Mexico.

Other key Obama moves include the selection of Cecilia Muñoz, one of the smartest policy wonks in Washington, as White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Our access to the president also is secured by the fact that Obama’s team will not soon forget the important role Latinos played in electing the new president.

In Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico, states that all went for Bush in 2004, Latino voters helped decide the win for Obama. Nationwide, two-thirds of Latino voters picked Obama over Republican John McCain. Latino voters will account for a growing percentage of overall turnout in years to come.

Latinos have earned a role in White House decisions that will determine our nation’s future. In 2010, will Latino voters look back and say that Obama kept his promises?

To that question, I offer an enthusiastic if indelicate “I hope so.” Hispanic Link.

­(James E. García is a journalist and senior research fellow at the ASU Center for Community Development and Civil Rights. Email: james.garcia@asu.edu). ©2009

by Cindy Von Quednow

John Trasviña

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Latino organizational, political and community leaders and activists gathered here from throughout the nation Jan. 19 to share in shaping their State of the Union statement for some 50 million Hispanics now residing in the United States. A few hundred participants spent the better part of the day listening and contributing to the second annual Hispanic roundtable on law, policy and civil rights at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Capitol Hill.

­The event was hosted by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

Members of those three and numerous other organizations came together to define and refine the issues most affecting the burgeoning Latino community nationwide as a new Congress that Latinos helped choose is being seated and a new president whom Hispanics helped elect moves into the White House.

In excess of nine million Hispanics voted Nov. 4, a million more than in the 2004 presidential election.

Two-thirds of them cast their ballots for Barack Obama.

Conclave speakers focused on how the Latino community can work with the dramatically altered national political leadership to accomplish its essential goals.

“We all have a duty and we must work with each other and the new administration to make our agenda a reality,” said John Trasviña, president and general counsel of MALDEF, who opened up the event.

To accomplish certain aspirations such as a truly compassionate, comprehensive immigration reform plan, Trasviña acknowledged, will require well-organized, unifi ed efforts by the large and diverse Latino population. “We have a number of things we have to accomplish,” he said, emphasizing, “We need to push the Latino agenda forward now.”

María Elena Salinas, co-anchor of Noticiero Univisión, moderated a discussion, about the priorities under the Obama administration and the incoming Congress.

Contributing expertise were Ben Luján from New Mexico, the lone newly elected member to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; Rosa Rosales, president of LULAC, Simon Rosenberg, president of New Democrat Network, and Trasviña.

In addition to immigration, they pressed on such issues as affordable health care, renewable energy, jobs and availability to advancing technology for Latino students.

“If we keep doing what we’re doing now, our kids are going to have even fewer opportunities than we had,” said Luján, who also stressed the need for energy independence.

Guests broke into panels expanding on improving educational access and quality, countering growing hate-crime activity against Latinos and immigrants, and addressing the impact of the economic recession on millions of Hispanic families.

Kansas State Representative Delia García and representatives from NCLR, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Anti-Defamation League and the Maryland Department of Labor shared strategy pro­posals, including creating greater national awareness of the problem’s Hispanic dimensions and inviting broader support from all segments of society.

“This is not a Latino issue. This is an American issue,” explained Clarissa Martínez De Castro, director of immigration and national campaigns at NCLR.

Thomas E. Pérez, Secretary of the Department of Labor in Maryland, stressed, “Hate does not exist in a vacuum. Crime does not occur in a vacuum.”How to mobilize Hispanics nationwide to capitalize on a positive, new national mind set drew focus in the special segment, “2009: Taking Back the Message to the Latino Community.” Their consensus message: Federal cooperation and community strength offer much to look forward to in the upcoming year, but not without obstacles.

It featured challenges by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and U.S. Senator Robert Menéndez (D-N.J.). “Never before has the state of the Latino union been so close to the state of the nation,” said Villaraigosa. “We have an administration that is willing to face our reality.”

Among summary speakers were U.S. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), pioneer farm labor organizer Dolores Huerta, LULAC’s Texasbased president Rosa Rosales and ’08 Voto Latino coordinator María Teresa Petersen. Each one closed with a single beseeching word: “Adelante”…”En- gage”…”Organize”…”Act.”

(Cindy Von Quednow covered Inauguration Week events for Hispanic Link News Service. Email: vonquizu@gmail.com).

­

by Jackie Gúzmán

The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes: Selected Works of José Antonio Burciaga, edited by Mimi R. Gladstein and Daniel Chacón, is one of the best books I have read in a long, long time. The entries into this retrospective deserve a reading between the lines.

José Antonio Burciaga is one of the important voices of Chicano literature. Burciaga was also a muralist and creator of memorable pictorial commentary. He was a poet, a humorist, a satirist, a cartoonist and mostly a humanist. An early and frequent contributor to Hispanic Link, Burciaga died of cancer on Oct. 7, 1996.

He was unique in how he treated cultural differences and difficulties, including the inequities he revealed through humor, art, and deceptively simple prose. In this book Burciaga tells us through anecdotes his Chicano heritage and how it ripples in from Mexico. He tells about growing up between the proverbial two cultures and languages. Gladstein and Chacon address Burciaga’s importance to Chicano letters. That alone puts this book on a collector’s shelf, to visit and revisit some of his original thought in Latino literature.

Burciaga stretches that rubber band, also. With the turn of a phrase, he takes us into those creative and spiritual depths that get a rise or a laugh from us. In his essay, “What’s in a Spanish Name?” he describes the pronunciation mistakes that we would like to pretend aren’t common. How about polamas when trying to say palomas or numberos for – you get the picture. It isn’t beyond him to make fun of our everyday foibles. Very little, if anything, is so sacrosanct we ought not joke about it. There too is a quality of Burciaga. His humor and truths may sting. But they don’t injure.

The Last Supper book can make the reader laugh from beginning to end as it delves into reality and fantasy.The cartoon collection is evidence of Burciaga’s imaginative ways to characterize Chicano culture. Included is a picture of the book’s namesake mural, “Last Supper of Chicano Heroes,” a DaVinci impression,with Diego Rivera- or José Clemente Orozco-like insertions of the iconic heroe from Latino history.

Pachuco stories aren’t left out. In “Pachucos and the Taxicab Brigade,” Burciaga talks about Mexicans and Mexican-Americans targeted as gangsters. His poetry and art give the reader an unquenching look into what his work was like and why it is remembered. Left to the next generation of writers who discover Burciaga is to place his life in relation to what else was going on in the nation’s culture and the arts. What used to be Chicano morphed into Latino later, and then becomes mainstream. Transnational. Transcultural. Transcendantal,even.

(University of Arizona Press: paperback, 38 illustrations, $16.95. 208 pages.) Hispanic Link.